1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a personal watercraft. More particularly, the present invention relates to a personal watercraft having an air-water separating structure to inhibit entry of water into an engine room when the watercraft is banked, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, jet-propulsion personal watercraft have been widely used in leisure, sport, or rescue activities. The personal watercraft is equipped with a water jet pump that pressurizes and accelerates water sucked from a water intake provided on a hull and ejects it rearward. As the resulting reaction, a body of the watercraft is propelled forward.
There are stand-up type personal watercraft and straddle-type personal watercraft. The stand-up type personal watercraft includes a concave portion having a flat bottom portion called a standing deck at a rear portion of a deck, which is a space intended for a rider. Standing on the bottom portion at the center of the concave portion, the rider grips a steering handle located in front to steer the watercraft. An engine room is formed in an interior of a body of the watercraft and is located forward of the standing deck. The straddle-type personal watercraft is equipped with a seat that extends from a substantially middle portion to a rear portion over the deck and is configured to be straddled by the rider. Straddling the seat, the rider grips and steers the steering handle located forward on the watercraft. Typically, the engine room is formed in the interior of the body to be located below the seat. In general, the straddle-type personal watercraft can accommodate several persons. As used herein, “forward” is the traveling direction of the watercraft, and “rearward” is the opposite direction.
The above described personal watercraft is devised so that a large amount of water does not enter the engine room even when the body is banked or inverted in a lateral direction thereof. By way of example, the applicant of the present invention filed a patent application of the invention relating to an engine hood that is provided with air inlets that are located at one of right and left sides of a front portion of the engine hood and at an opposite side of a rear portion thereof so as to be spaced apart from each other, and air-intake ducts that are coupled to the corresponding air inlets and are configured to extend in the lateral direction in an engine room and to have openings in the interior of the engine room to form independent air introducing means respectively connected to the engine room. By providing the independent front and rear air introducing means formed of the air inlets and the air-intake ducts, the air inlets or openings of the air-intake ducts into the engine room are located in the air, and thus entry of the water from the outside of the body into the engine room is inhibited even when the body is banked in the lateral direction (e.g., Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. Hei. 4-125997).
However, the engine room of the personal watercraft is narrow. When providing the air inlets and the ducts at the front portion and the rear portion of the right and left sides of the engine hood, they are required to be laid out so as not to contact an engine, an exhaust pipe, a propeller shaft, etc. As a result, they cannot not be laid out flexibly. In particular, since the rear portion of the engine hood is narrow because of a construction to mount the handle, it is sometimes difficult to lay out or design the duct so that the duct extends in the lateral direction from the rear portion of the engine hood.
For example, it is sometimes difficult to design the body of the watercraft so as to improve its appearance when changing a shape of a portion below a handle of the body of the personal watercraft for one rider's use, because of the layout of the air inlets and the ducts.